The most-read deal stories of 2018

WPP starts 2018 with a bang by creating Burson Cohn & WolfeFebruary 27 News about the most-read-about, and most-talked-about, PR deal came out early in the year, without warning, and before agency leaders wanted it to be made public. WPP’s mashup of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe was one of the most significant PR news events of the year.

Peppercomm and the affiliate brand, Hot Paper LanternJune 12In June, Peppercomm co-CEO Ed Moed, president Ted Birkhahn, and other leaders left the firm to create an affiliate agency known as Hot Paper Lantern. But what’s an "affiliate brand?" Like a sitcom spin-off? Single cell mitosis? Birkhahn defined the term in PRWeek’s second-most-read agency deal story of 2018.

H+K and SJR separate in a global restructureOctober 5Hill+Knowlton Strategies bought Group SJR in 2013, but it divested the content shop in October. SJR is now on its own (inside WPP) and would, said H+K CEO Jack Martin, probably move out of H+K's offices in New York. The two firms will work together on common clients but have not decided who gets custody of the dog.